All changes made in Firefox such as Homepage, panels you use, extensions you have installed, your bookmarks and saved passwords are stored in a special folder called "profile". Your profile folder is kept separate from executable files Firefox, so if something goes wrong with Firefox, your information will always be saved. It also means that you can uninstall Firefox without losing your preferences, and that you don't have to reinstall Firefox to remove information or fix a problem.
Firefox saves your profile folder on your computer, by default in this location:
C:\Users\
Windows hides the AppData folder by default, but you can find your profile folder like this:
Click the icon Finder in the dock. In the menu bar, click on the Go menu, and while holding down the option or alt key, select Library . A window will open containing your Library folder.
Note: This is not a complete list. Only important information is provided.
Hello everyone who came to the site for newcomers to the Internet. On the pages of our resource, we talked about the browser Mozilla Firefox how to install it, its settings, etc. For more details, see dedicated to this topic. Today we will look at what a profile is, how to find it, what files are in it and what they are responsible for.
During the installation of the browser, a special folder is created in which all our information will be stored in the future: sessions, passwords, bookmarks, installed extensions, various panels, and much more. This folder is called " profile».
It is stored separately from all browser program files. This means that you can safely remove, reinstall Mozilla Firefox. Your profile information will be saved. Or vice versa, if you have a problem, then you do not have to delete the browser, but simply delete the profile and thus solve your problem.
There are two ways to find out where the firefox profile folder is located. Let's consider them.
Using a browser. We launch it, open the main menu and click on the small icon with a question mark.
Thus, we will open a help desk.
And we go to Troubleshooting Information».
The Mozilla Firefox details page will appear in front of us. In the column "" click on the button " Show folder". In a second, it will open in front of you. All your information from this browser is stored here.
You can go to this profile folder without opening Firefox - keyboard shortcuts Win and R (Win + R). When using them, a window appears " Run»
Enter this command " %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\” and click “OK”. Explorer will open, where the profile folder will be indicated, in which the word default will be indicated, approximately in this format (xxxxxxxxx.default-00000000000).
Now let's look at what exactly is stored in the profile folder.
Bookmarks, history, data about downloaded files are contained in the file places.sqlite
All backups your bookmarks are stored in a folder bookmarkbackups. In order to restore bookmarks from a backup copy, open your browser, click on the button Import and backups
You can use another way to save bookmarks -.
Data about passwords that you save in the browser are stored in files logins.json And key3.db
For sites such as: where and what pop-ups to show are in files permissions.sqlite And content-prefs.sqlite
List of installed search engines displays file search.json.mozlz4
File formhistory.sqlite contains data about the search or those that you entered on various sites. Created for autocomplete form fields on resources.
An alternative to cookies is storage DOM, it is larger in volume, it is safe. The file is responsible for storing information. webappsstore.sqlite
All extension data that you have set in the browser are stored in the folder extensions
If you installed security certificates and SSL, then all their settings are stored in the file cert8.db
Database protective modules stored in secmod.db
File mimeTypes.rdf tells the browser what to do loading actions one file or another. For example, open a .pdf file in Acrobat Reader
All data about MIME types installed plugins contained in the file pluginreg.dat
Location settings toolbar, window sizes and positions are stored in xulstore.json
All browser settings that we ourselves set in the Settings window are saved in a file prefs.js
We've covered the most important data to save and restore. So, today we learned what a profile is, where it is located and what is in it.
Let's end this today. Next time we'll talk about how to manage passwords in Mozilla Firefox. Until we meet again!
Everyone is unhappy exactly as much as he considers himself unhappy.
Giacomo Leopardi
Firefox saves your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords, and user preferences in a set of files called your , which is stored in a separate location from the Firefox program files. You can have multiple Firefox profiles, each containing a separate set of user information. The Profile Manager allows you to create, remove, rename, and switch profiles.
type about:profiles into the address bar and press the Enterreturn key. This will open the About Profiles page.
The following options are available:
To manage profiles, find the profile you want to change and choose from these buttons underneath that profile:
Note: Another way to start the Profile Manager is from the Search box in the Windows Start menu. Close Firefox (if open), press , type firefox.exe -P and press enter.
If the above instructions do not work or if you have multiple installations of Firefox, use the following instructions instead.
You can have multiple Firefox programs installed in different locations. To start the Profile Manager for a specific Firefox installation, replace firefox.exe in the above instructions with the full path to the Firefox program, enclose that line in quotes, then add a space followed by -P.
Examples:
Firefox (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P
After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can remove an existing profile as follows:
After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can rename a profile as follows:
Choosing this option loads the selected profile and starts Firefox without connecting to the Internet. You can view previously viewed web pages and experiment with your profile.
When you have multiple profiles, this option tells Firefox what to do at startup:
When you first open Firefox in a new profile, a Welcome to Firefox page will open, with a space to enter your email address.
Let's imagine a situation. To work in a browser, you have panels and tabs configured for quick access to the required sites. For personal needs, this information is different. Can separate browser instances be split to separate personal from work activities? It turns out there is a way out. Let's see how to create multiple Firefox profiles.
Profile - a set of settings and personal information. These are logins, passwords from social networks, design themes, start page. They are recorded in files, stored in a special folder.
Multiple profiles are needed for the following reasons:
Let's edit the browser shortcut. Click on it right click mouse, then "Properties".
On the "Shortcut" tab, add the value "-p" in the "Object" line with a space.
Switch the keyboard layout to English.
The default suggested name is "Default User". I recommend changing it for convenience and security. You can write the name in Russian, but it is better in Latin, so that in the future there will be no malfunctions. Set the storage folder yourself, but this is optional, you can leave it by default.
If everything is left unchanged, when you start the browser, a manager will open in which you will have to select a profile and click on the "Run" button. To prevent it from opening about every launch, uncheck the box next to "No prompt". 
Now the browser will not ask, but will open the selected profile.
Follow the sequence of these steps:
As a result, icons will be created for each profile, with saved bookmarks, passwords, history of visited sites.
The described method increases the security of storing personal information.
Turn off the browser, right-click on the icon, then in the "Properties" window in the "Object" tab, write down the parameter as in the screenshot: 
Put a space after the "r".
Instead of
Click on the shortcut to open the browser. A selection window will appear. Select the desired option, click "Start". 
A window with this profile will open. Minimize the browser. Click on the label. In the manager, select another profile, click the "Start" button. The browser will load with different settings.
Look at the screenshot. Two browsers open at the same time. Working and just created with new settings. It can be seen that their settings are different. 
Firefox has its own own system profiles, which works like a Chrome user account switcher. Each profile has its own bookmarks, settings, extensions, browser history, cookies and other data. For example, you can create a profile for work and a separate profile for personal use.
Mozilla hides Firefox's profile manager instead of making it a prominent part of the interface like Chrome does, for example. But, if you want to use different browser profiles with your own settings and data, Firefox allows it.
Mozilla has another, more streamlined solution if you just want parts of your browser to be separated from each other. The extension is called "Firefox Multi-Account Containers" and it's made by Mozilla themselves. This extension allows you to select a "Container" for each open tab. For example, you can run tabs in the Work container when you are working and the Personal container when you are not working. So, if you have a separate set of work accounts and personal accounts, then you can simply switch between containers without logging in and out of each website.
While this does not completely replace the need for profiles (bookmarks, browser history and extensions are shared between containers), it does allow you to have separate login state and cookies for each container.
Mozilla Firefox now allows you to manage profiles while you work, without having to use the Profile Manager available in older versions. To access this feature, type " about:profiles" V address bar Firefox and then press Enter. You can bookmark this page for easier access in the future if you wish.
If you haven't viewed Firefox profiles before, you'll probably be using the "default" profile.
To create new profile, click the Create New Profile button.
In the Profile Wizard window that appears, provide a descriptive name for the new profile so you can remember what it is for. For example, you can name it "Work profile" if it is intended for work.
To start Firefox with a new profile, first click on the "Set as default profile" button in the profile. Once it becomes your default profile, close all open windows Firefox browser and restart Firefox. It will start with the default profile selected.
To switch back to a different profile, go to profiles again: click "Set as default profile" for the profile you want to use, and then restart Firefox.
If you no longer need a profile, you can click the "Remove" button to remove it from your system. Keep in mind that this will delete all data saved on the profile, including its bookmarks, saved passwords, and extensions.
You may have noticed that the "About Profiles" page has a "Launch another browser with this profile" button. However, this button does nothing when using the default Firefox configuration for handling profiles. By default, Firefox only runs one profile at a time. You need to close and restart your browser to switch between profiles. But by slightly changing the shortcut you use to launch it, Firefox can launch multiple profiles at the same time.
To enable multiple Firefox profiles at once, you must start Firefox with the option -no-remote. To do this, you need to edit the shortcut in the Taskbar, on the Desktop or in the Start menu, which is usually used to launch Firefox.
For example, if you use the shortcut on the taskbar to launch Firefox, right-click the Firefox icon on the taskbar, right-click "Mozilla Firefox" in the pop-up menu, and select Properties.
In the Properties window, on the Shortcut tab, place the cursor at the very end of the text in the Target field, and then add -no-remote to the end of the text. The Object field should look something like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -no-remote
Close all open Firefox browser windows, and then restart Firefox using the shortcut you just changed. When you do this, you can return to the page about:profiles and click the "Launch another browser with this profile" button. Firefox will open a new browser window with the selected profile.
You can also do everything we talked about with the old Firefox profile manager if you like. It also allows you to create custom shortcuts that open the Firefox Profile Manager and launch Firefox with specific profiles, if you like.
First, you need to completely close Firefox. Then you need to launch Firefox with the key -p.
You will see the "Select User Profile" dialog box. By default, one user profile named "default" will be created. You can use this window to create additional profiles, rename existing ones, and delete them.
If you want to always see the profile selection when you start Firefox, which will allow you to select a profile every time you click on the Firefox shortcut without using a special command, you can disable "Run the selected profile without prompting". This will make Firefox ask which profile you want to use until you enable this option.
At least one profile is required to use Firefox. Each profile has its own own settings, extensions, bookmarks, history, cookies and everything else. Keep this in mind. If you delete the "default" profile, you will lose all Firefox browsing data (unless you are using Firefox Sync).
When you create a new profile, you can give it any name you want. The wizard will show you where the profile will be stored. By default, they are placed in your Firefox profiles folder. account user prefixed with eight random letters and numbers.
Select a profile and click Launch Firefox to launch Firefox with the selected profile. When you first start Firefox with a new profile, you will see a welcome message.
Close Firefox and restart it to switch between profiles. If you have disabled the "Run the selected profile without prompting" option, then Firefox will ask which profile you want to use before launching. You can also leave this box checked and launch Firefox using the toggle -p or -profilemanager to access the hidden profile manager whenever you want.
For ease of use, you can create a shortcut that will also open Firefox using the profile manager. For example, on Windows, you can create a copy of the Mozilla Firefox desktop shortcut, rename it "Mozilla Firefox - Profile Manager" and then add a space and -p to the end of the text in "Object". This shortcut will now open Firefox using the Profile Manager, assuming Firefox is completely closed when the shortcut is launched.
By default, Firefox doesn't work the way Chrome does. He wants you to use one profile at a time. However, if you wish, you can use multiple profiles at once.
To do this, you just need to start Firefox with the key -no-remote. You can do this in the Run dialog or Terminal, or you can simply change an existing Firefox shortcut. For example, if you have created a profile manager shortcut, you can simply add -no-remote to make it work -p -no-remote at the end of the Object field.
Start Firefox with this switch, in other words double click on the shortcut you just created and it won't check if Firefox is already running. Instead it will ask which profile you want to use and create new process Firefox with this profile.
You can use this process to open Firefox with any number of different profiles, although each profile can only be used by one copy of Firefox at a time. If you try to open the same profile a second time when it is already running, you will see an error that the profile is already in use.
Note. If you see an error using a profile while Firefox is closed, you may need to visit the task manager and kill the firefox.exe process from there, force close it if it is running in the background.
Everything should work as you would expect. However, while Chrome does make it easy to see the profile you're using in its interface, Firefox doesn't make this information very visible. To do this, you can set a different theme for each profile to visually differentiate them.
If you ever need to find out which profile you are using, you can find this information on the " about:profiles».
You do not need to use the Profile Manager to troubleshoot problems with your Firefox profile. Instead, you can use the "Reset Firefox" feature to get Firefox browser With initial settings without losing important things.
